If you watch CNBC, you know that these are not happy times for American homeowners. U.S. home prices just fell for the first time in 16 years, new condos are languishing in former hot spots like Florida, and the subprime-lending fiasco threatens to drag down the wider economy.

But why listen to CNBC? Turn the dial a few notches to HGTV, and the housing boom has never been boomier. HGTV, the homespun redoubt of gardening and glue-gun projects that became a cable hit in the post-9/11 cocooning era, is now dominated by what it calls "Property Buzz" shows: series about buying...